Unsolved murder north of Oshawa and the failed Mr. Big sting to catch her alleged killer inspires documentary
Published April 19, 2022 at 9:25 am
Durham Region’s oldest unsolved murder and the failed Mr. Big sting to try to catch the killer are the subject of a new documentary coming to Toronto Hot Docs.
The docu-series focuses on the 1974 death of Beverly Lynn Smith in Raglan, Ontario, a small community on Simcoe Street smack in between Oshawa and Port Perry.
Smith was 22 years-old and a new mother to her 10-month-old daughter, Rebecca. On December 9, 1974, as her daughter slept in a neighbouring room, Smith was shot in the back of the head in her own home.
There were no signs of forced entry. Nothing was taken from the house. Smith was later found fully clothed and unmolested. The murder weapon, a .22 caliber rifle, was never found, and there was no indication the shot came from outside.
Rebecca was found safe and sleeping in the next room. Durham Region Police investigators were at a loss as to who could have killed Smith or why.
DRPS was barely older than Rebecca Smith. They had only just amalgamated the patchwork of local police forces into one Regional Service the previous January.
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The newly christened DRPS worked tirelessly to solve the mysterious crime. Smith was found to have had guests just prior to her death. However, an interview eliminated them as suspects. Eventually Smith’s case was placed in a cold case file and left on the shelf unsolved for decades. Attempts to revive the investigation over the years came to naught.
More than thirty years later a break came in.
Durham Regional Police brought in Linda Smith in 2008. She alleged it was her then-husband, Alan Dale Smith, who pulled the trigger, a claim was backed up by a former friend.
Linda was a neighbour of Beverly’s, friendly though unrelated. It was Linda who found Beverly’s body lying on the floor of the home. She had received a call from Beverly’s husband, Doug, who was trying to call home from work at General Motors.
Concerned when he received no answer, Doug called Linda to check out his home. Linda saw Beverly’s body when she peaked through a window.
Alan Smith, who had since moved to Cobourg, was arrested a few months later and charged with second-degree murder. However, the statements were later found to be unreliable as Linda’s story shifted under heavy questioning.
First she said she was with Alan the whole night. Then she said he left for about an hour. Linda said she heard a noise that could have been a backfiring car. Finally, she said she saw Alan put a rifle in his van. This changing narrative led to Linda facing an obstruction charge.
Police seized Alan’s extensive old psyciatric records, hoping to find a confession, but found no indication of one. With the narrative proving unreliable and no corroborating evidence, Alan’s charges were withdrawn.
However, Durham Regional Police remained convinced they had their man. They orchestrated a ploy to pull a confession from Alan Dale Smith.
Alan was an avid fishermen, a hobby police would expolit when they orchestrated a fake fishing derby to lure Alan in. Alan, alone and friendless following a stint in prison, took the bait and made a friend on the trip…an undercover DRPS officer.
This would be the first steps in a Mr. Big sting to extract a confession from Alan. This kind of covert policing technique was developed by the RCMP in the 1990s. In it, an undercover investigator befriends a suspect and brings them into a fabricated criminal organization.
The target is then brought into increasingly illegal activities with pay. Numerous officers play parts to create the illusion of a criminal network. Finally in order to prove their allegiance to Mr. Big, the fictitious crime boss, the suspect is forced to divulge their criminal histories. These confessions are then used to arrest the targets.
While Canadian police forces have used this technique in more than 350 investigations, the so-called “Canadian technique” was swiftly banned by numerous countries including Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In Alan’s case, he and his new ‘friend’ quickly grew close. Fishing together, touring the town in the officer’s truck and talking on the phone every day, as the duplicitous cop transmitted every word spoken.
Over time the officer started involving Alan in fake drug sales to other undercover cops. The pair were soon working directly for Mr. Big, who organized a large cannabis sale. This time, under orders from Mr. Big, the two would steal back 40 pounds of cannabis.
They did so from a Comfort Inn and the officer dropped Alan off at home with plans to meet up for another fishing trip the next day. In the dead of night the officer returned, but instead of going fishing they men with Mr. Big at an industrial park.
Big was sprayed with (sheep’s) blood and accompanied a dead (mannequin) body wrapped in a tarp. He ordered the pair to dispose of the body, burn his clothes and dispose of other evidence. The officer dropped Alan at a cottage to sleep while Durham Police committed to getting a confession.
The Officer and Mr. Big returned to the cottage and Big demanded an equal confession from Alan. At knifepoint and scared for his life, as alleged in investigative reporter Michael Lista’s “The Sting” , Alan confessed to the murder of Beverly Lynn Smith.
Other sources dispute Lista’s assertion Alan was threatened at any point.
After recanting and then re-affirming his confession to Mr. Big, and after police were recorded discussing how scared Alan was when he first admitted the crime, Alan was arrested for the murder a second time five months after his first confession. During this time, Alan and the undercovers continued to meet.
Alan would sit in prison for four and a half years while his case awaited trial. In the interim another Mr. Big sting down east was about to have massive ramifications for Alan.
The RCMP targeted Nelson Hart of Gander, Newfoundland for a Mr. Big after the drowning deaths of his three-year-old twin daughters. Hart confessed during the sting and was later convicted. However the Appeals Court found Hart’s testimony was coerced as a result of the cashflow brought in by his ‘criminal’ activities and the confession was tossed.
The Supreme Court later upheld this decision with the rationale Mr. Big stings could create unreliable confessions, prejudice the jury and create opportunity for police misconduct. Newfoundland prosecutors elected not to re-litigate Hart’s trial and he was released after nine years behind bars.
This Supreme Court decision raised the bar for Mr. Big confessions. Alan’s confession was also tossed in 2014, with Justice Bruce Glass commenting “you could drive a Mack truck” through the holes in Alan’s story, and citing similar rationale to the Supreme Court shortly before their decision..
Glass believed that Alan had been coerced, that his confession was unreliable and that the sting robbed him of his right to an attorney while being questioned as guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Beverly’s daughter Rebecca, now a grown woman older than her mother ever got to be, and Beverly’s twin sister Barbra remain convinced of Alan’s guilt.
One will be able to decide for themselves when The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith comes to the Hot Docs Film Festival on May 1 and Amazon Prime May 6.
With files from Canadian Press, CBC, Toronto Life, and Toronto Star.
Photo via Amazon Prime.
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